The Claret Of Shortcake and Clockwork
by shortcake.clockwork
Summary: The Claret Of Shortcake and Clockwork is a co-written Emile Autumn fan fiction. Written by two Plague Rats for our fellow Plague Rats, we thank you all for reading and hope you enjoy.
1. The Claret Of Shortcake and Clockwork

The Claret Of Shortcake and Clockwork is a co-written Emile Autumn fan fiction. Written by two Plague Rats for our fellow Plague Rats, we thank you all for reading and hope you enjoy.

_"They don't recall the taste of freedom"_

When Saphray Mellinia finds herself in the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls she awakes with no memorie of who she is, she is left with her name and age and no further information. Her cell mate Francine Vigilantia or better known as Frankie sympathises with Saphraye as she too has very little from her past to recall. Frankie introduces young Saphraye to Emile Autumn and The Bloody Crumpets and together they plan to escape the clutches of Dr Hellio and the Staff of The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls to find who they really are but other evils outside the walls of the asylum have far greater plans for the girls and try to keep them from their true destinies.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter one:

{Saphraye}  
I awake, head throbbing, body aching, immobile movement. Who am I? It takes me a while to a just my sight. My arms and legs are chained to the bed. I'm hopping its some sick nightmare. I manage to sit up, bars. Where am I? I look around and it's dark. Everything is a blur; I don't know anything about myself; however, something at the back of my blank mind says Saphraye Mellinia. I decide to lay back down and sleep there's obviously no point in staying awake in the silence.

A hand on my shoulder.

"Wake up." A whisper, a girl. I'm jolted back to reality, she looks kind enough, athletic build, brown and purple-blue hair. She kneels down and unbuckles me.

"Thank you." I'm not sure if the words come out of my mouth, because they're so quiet.

"I'm Francine Vigilantia, but you can call me Frankie." She smiles kindly and offers me a hand to help me up.

"I-I think my name's Saphraye M-Mellinia." I burst into a fit of tears and fling myself around Frankie. She begins to stoke my head.

"Shhhh. It's ok." I continue to cry, something tells me that I'll be safe with this girl.  
About thirty minutes pass (I'm not quite sure) and I stop crying and wipe my eyes.  
"Come on." Says Frankie, "It's time for breakfast." I stand properly, I'm a little wobbly but I manage. To walk out of the cell, down the hall to the dining room. It's so solemn in here, like there's no happiness. What have I gotten myself into? I tap Frankie on the shoulder and whisper  
"What is this place?" she sighs and doesn't look at me  
"It's a mental Asylum I'm afraid." We walk to the trays slide them along the line for breakfast.  
I turn around; Frankie points to a table near the back;  
"We're over there." There's a group that consists of five girls. Frankie walks ahead, and I begin to slowly walk behind her. She leans over to me  
"I might warn you, some of us girls can be quite…" before Frankie could finish, a girl with short orange-red hair raises what appears to be a tea cup They seem to be quite nice for a place like this I think to myself; and throws a hard looking scone at Frankie's head. She caught it; it was about an inch away from her face. How much practice at that could she have had?  
"Vulgar." She pulled a chair out from under the table, and gestured for me to sit down. Frankie then sits down and crosses her legs on the chair, another skill I assume she's had plenty of practice at.

"Damn it Frankie, you're no fun!" Says the girl with bright orange-red hair.

"Shut your pie whole Mag, I'd watch it if I were you. The Doc would gladly...talk to you again." Frankie seems sly when she talks

"Shock treatments, shock treatment Frank my brain's already fried." Mag giggled.

"Mag, I'm dead cereal about this, something's up; I can feel it." Frankie turns her head and bites her lip, I assume gently. Frankie dipped the scone that had been thrown at her face, dipping it in a cream dish. The way that Frankie bit the scone was quite vicious; it frightened me. Another girl with vibrantly red hair, sitting at the head of the table looked at Frankie concern in her eyes, then at me, then back to Frankie.

"So rude of you Frankie, to not introduce your cell mate." She laughed freakishly loud. Frankie puts a hand over her heart  
"Ouch Em that hurts here…"  
I sigh and look at my try of food, if you could call it that. I pick up the cutlery that had been supplied for me, and slowly began to eat small pieces of the food.  
"So what's your name Sweaty?"  
I don't reply, I stop moving, and fight back my tears. A pale girl with long black hair says  
"Answer her Newbie." She seems more vicious than the other girls. Frankie puts her hand on my shoulder, I look at her.  
"Saphraye." I mumble.  
"Saphraye." Frankie repeats.  
"How old are you?" Asks the black haired girl. I don't reply again. I see her hand reaching for a scone.

"I-I-I-I…"

"You what?!" the black haired girl is frightening me.

"Veronica!" Frankie yells. "She's got amnesia ok! She's lucky that she remembers her name!" I lightly cover my ears. The red haired girl gets out of her seat, walks over to me and hugs me.

[Frankie]  
I glare over at Veronica as Emilie hugs Saphraye, Hushing her as she cries into Emilie's shoulder  
"You can be a real bitch sometimes, do you know that?" I say to Veronica with my words dripping with disappointment. Veronica shrugs my way and my glare tightens.  
"It's not so different from when you showed up here" she says slyly with a grin. I go to take another bite from the scone  
"Bog" Veronica added raising an eye brow a little. I stop before I can take another bite; my stomach churns at the sound of the word. The thing about Veronica was she knew what would boil my blood. She could read me from the start and when she got the opportunity to she loved pulling at my strings and pushing buttons to get a reaction over me. She knew I had a short fuse and that I was an overall angry person. If it wasn't for Emilie and her techniques I would be a hell of a lot angrier all the time and Veronica would make it worse.  
"Say what?" I ask anger boiling underneath a falsified calm. The table sits in silence waiting on baited breath for my response some faces showing concern others showing that they had fingers crossed underneath the table hoping I don't flip like last time.  
"You heard me...Bog" giggled Veronica.  
I stand and it's all eyes on me. I slowly step toward Veronica and she stands with a smile on her face.  
"Frankie..." warns Emilie as both Saphrayes eyes and her own follow me.  
I'm not listening to her  
"Frank it isn't worth it" Maggot warns grabbing hold of my arm as I pass her but I only pull my arm from her grip and keep walking  
I'm closer to Veronica now standing in front of her. I take another step further so that our faces are closer.  
"I am not a..." before I can utter the very word I loathed I'm saved slightly by the P.A system. However someone else was not.  
"Could miss Saphraye please make her way to Dr. Hellios' A voice calls over the P.A system. I look to Saphraye as I see one of the handlers coming up from behind her.

{Saphraye}  
A voice calls over the loud speaker in the hall  
"Could miss Saphraye please make her way to Dr. Hellios' office." The girls look at me in shear horror.  
"What?" I ask.  
"He's such a dick!" shouts Veronica.  
"Shhhhh!" The girls hush at her.  
"What?" I ask again. One of the handlers walks over to me and grabs my arm viciously.  
The handler is dragging me along a corridor which is so dark, dull and bare that I don't know what to think, I don't even know what to think of this doctor. I'm stopped at a door which says in plane black lettering Dr. J. Hellio the handler knocks.  
A man's voice calls from the other side "Enter."  
I start to shake. The door is opened, and I see a man and a woman, the man is sitting in a large swivel chair, and the woman is standing next to him behind his desk. The woman gestures to a seat in front of the desk

"Please sit." The handler pushes me towards the seat and forces me down. My eyes are wide with terror.  
"Now, Saphraye. Do you know why you are here?"  
I shake my head.  
"You were reported on the street, acting in a suspicious manor, screaming that 'they' were after you. And that you had to get away, it was quite odd. When we finally got to you, we believe that you had attacked yourself. This is a safe place. We will help you to get better alright."  
He gestures to the woman "This is Dr. Sophia Joyce. She is our physiologist here; if you need to talk to anyone here she is the one to go to alright."

"You can talk to me about anything Saphraye. However you should know that anything you tell me will come back to Dr. Hellio nothing is a secret here." I nod.

"Can I go back to the dining hall now?" I ask quietly, Dr. Hellio nods and the handler softly pulls me up and escorts me back to dining hall, the girls are still there; Veronica has a black eye, Frankie has a bloody lip and Emilie is cradling her wrist.

The handler leaves and I sit down. "Are you alright hon?" asks Emilie I nod. "What did he do?"  
"Just talked to me. Sat me down and explained why I was here, met the Physiologist. That's it. I was allowed to go."

Frankie puts her hand on my shoulder and looks up and looks around the room. "It could be much worse, trust me."  
"What happened to all of you?" I ask, worry piercing through me like a dagger through my heart. All the girls exchange glances at each other, Emilie's still nursing her wrist, she looks at Frankie. "Hello?"  
Frankie sighs "Me…" her tone is soft, if it wasn't for the fact that I was sitting next to her, I wouldn't have been able to hear her. She takes a handkerchief out from her pocket, she spits some blood into it. She sighs again "I happened."  
"What do you mean you happened?" Veronica leans over and puts her hand on top of mine.  
"She has a short fuse Saphraye." Veronica says kindly. She slides her hand back and another announcement.  
"Could all personal please escort the inmates back to their cells. That is all." Three handlers escort us to our cells which were all in the same block. Frankie was with me, Emilie was with Veronica and Contessa across from me and Frankie and Captain Maggot was with A… in the Cell next to us.

Around mid-afternoon, a handler came into Frankie's and my cell, and took the bed on wheels that I had been laying strapped-in on this morning. Frankie is sitting on the window sill, looking through the bars, the non-existent window. Looking at her, looking at the full moon makes me think, something familiar. She has her head pressed on the bars, she'd hit her head twice, for some unknown reason. "Frankie?" I ask. I'm now laying on the top bunk of a bed, Frankie had put some of her bed supplies on there for me, I don't know why she did that, but it was a very nice think of her to do.  
"Yes?" She looks at me, slight red marks on her fore-head, she smiles slightly at me.  
"What does Bog mean?" her hands clench on the barks, and her eyes flicker. I worrying jolt runs through my body. She looks back out the bars  
"It's an insult to the Irish, it mean to be of poor breeding, or to be poor financially." She sighs, her head down on the sill.  
"Frankie, are you Irish?" I turn over to my stomach, my arms crossed beneath my chest and torso. A small laugh escapes from her. "I noticed earlier that even though you sound American your R's sound more like Er's."  
"I was born to an Irish father and an American mother; they passed away when I was very, very young." I catch a small tear; she wipes it away before she though anyone could notice it. I sit up and locate the ladder, and climb down. I walk over to Frankie, sitting with her. She looks over to me  
"So you've been here since, they, they died?" I feel sorry for her.  
"No, I haven't I don't know if I'm thankful for that, or not." I slightly tip my head to the side.  
"Why?"  
"It's two completely different sides of hell." She looks back outside to the empty courtyard; I don't know what it is, but the emptiness gives me more creeps then the cell. "I know what it's like to be in your position." She adds. I look at Frankie, completely bewildered. She keeps staring outside. I can't help but wonder what is out there, that is so hypnotizing, that she can't look away. "I have no recollection of what happened to my parents, nothing from before I made it to a gypsy camp in Northern England. The reason I am here was, I was dropped here in fear… of this" she points to her eyes, her green one in particular.  
"You have only one Green eye and one Blue eye." My eyes open in surprise, I hadn't noticed all day.  
"You seriously didn't notice it before?" I shake my head. "Gypsies fear it as it apparently is a sign of the devil, apparently my anger issues, mood swings etcetera…enhanced their suspicions that I was a 'vessel of Satan' but Gypsies are usually full of shit anyway, or at least these one were." Her hands clench into fists again.  
"Gypsies?" I ask  
"Yeah. I was practically raised by Gypsy thieves, they thought they could use my 'powerful psychic ability' to cripple noble house in England but I thought different they tried everything to control me, and instead it back fired. So they dropped me here." Frankie's eye suddenly go real distant glance in her eyes. I wonder what she's thinking.

After about five minutes a look of real horror, "Frankie." She shakes her head

[Frankie]

"You'll never get away with this Kently" I spat

"And what makes you say that Bog?" said Kently. I struggled against his goons trying to break free. Kently was the ring leader of the thieves that took me in after I awoke deep in the wood lands of northern England.

"You've got no right, what did these people ever do to you?!" I shout struggling to get out of their grip.

"They flaunt their wealth while we live in squalor" Kently bellowed as the five people stood in the middle of the clearing; a man, a woman, a teenage boy and two young children. I couldn't see their faces as they had hessian bags over their heads "Why is it that you feel you need to take their side Bog, you are one of us now don't go forgetting it" he shouted my way as he kicked the back of the Man's knees so he would fall to them, forcing him to kneel before us Kently came closer to me so close that I could smell the mead on his breath. I puffed through my nose in anger as I could feel it boil beneath all else. I struggle a little again before Kently grabs my jaw with a large dirt covered hand.

"You'll take a shot when I tell you to Bog, do you understand me?" he spat mere inches from my face.

"Who dies Bog? it's either you..." he spits putting a finger into my shoulder."Or them?" he continues pointing to the family he has ordered me to shoot with arrows. His goons let me go and Kently slams me bow and quiver into my chest.

"Now...take a shot when I tell you Bog"

I don't say a word only glare at him in anger. I put on my quiver, pull an arrow and draw my bow.

"You" Kently belows at the woman as I wait for him to give me an order. He leans into her ear and whispers "Run" as he smiles at me. She turns and runs in the opposite direction, if I let her hit the forest they will lose her and it'll takes days maybe even weeks for Kently and his men to track her. Kently takes out his pistol and presses the barrel to the man's head.

"Take the shot!" he shouts "Or I shoot him!"

I do take a shot, I only just miss the woman. I've purposely missed however I did not mean for her to be injured, she'll be bleeding a little if the arrow head has scuffed deep enough. Wich I imagine it had judging by her reaction.

"You idiot!" Shout's Kently as he pulls the trigger then holds the gun up to me.

"Why! Why do you have to ruin everything, are you crazy?!"

"Maybe" I retort. He then takes off the other hessian bags from the boy and the children the children are two little girls, twins. He's still has the pistol pointed to me.

"Tell me Bog who's more important here? You?" he says shaking the pistol my way "Or them?"

"This isn't a game Kently these are lives you're playing with here" I try to reason but it doesn't work.

"I'll send out another target and you take a bloody shot ok Bog?!" he spits again. He pushes the boy in the direction of the forest again and orders him to run and the boy turns back begging Kently to spare the twins if he runs. Kently agrees and the boy runs.

"Take the shot" shouts Kently and I shake my head no.

"Take the shot!" he shots again and I shake my head before choking out a no

"Take the fucking shot or I shoot you" he spits in my face and I pull an arrow, draw my bow...

"Run!" I scream out to the two twins who do as I say. I know Kently can't shoot a moving target and the goons are out of amo. So whilst Kently is busy shooting at the twins and missing. I shoot one of Kently's goons in the temple. Turn and shoot the other between the eyes. Then shoot Kently in the arm as he moves, he shoots me in the leg.

Later that night Kently reports back to a large old woman with a tooth missing, she's wearing a light blue robe over a white dress held together with a white rope, on her head a chain head dress with a blue crystal in the center of it and little steel leave like plates dangle at the side.

"She shot me with an arrow" Explains Kently. And the woman pulls him by his blond curly pony tail.

"Listen to me, I know what to do with her...I know someone who can help us" she says to him but grinning sinisterly my way.

{Saphraye}

After about five minutes, A look of real horror,

"Frankie?" I snap my fingers in front of her face; she shakes her head  
"Is she spacing out again, Saphraye?" Maggot asks.

I look at her, and when I do, almost too fast for me to move, Frankie grabs my wrist. Frankie's eyes are somewhat back in reality; but the horror in them is spaced out. She is so frightening I want to scream Maggot's face is sympathetic. She had said "again" meaning that this had happened before, I look back at Frankie, fear clearly protruding from me. Frankie turns to me "Are you ok?" she whispers. I jolt back thinking she's going to hurt me, forgetting she had a grip on my wrist, she lets go.

"A-are y-you?" Something that I've noticed about myself is that when I get particularly nervous I begin to stutter. Frankie blinks a few times, sniffs and nods. She seems to be back in reality now.  
"Did you do the sniffing thing yet?" Maggot asks. Frankie turns around, jumping off the window sill she walks to the bars of our cell. I hear her sigh.  
"Yes Maggot, I'm alright." She reaches around the bars to put a hand on maggot's shoulder; Maggot squeals a shot, high-pitched squeal I can hear her fall.  
"Damn it Frank; you scared the living shit outta me." I can hear Veronica, Contessa and Emilie quietly laughing.  
"Sorry about your shit, Maggot." Frankie says  
"H-How do you do th-that?" I ask.  
"Do what?" Frankie looks back at me,  
"Space out like that, and then snap back almost instantly?" a slight giggle.  
"A metric shit load of practice." She shrugs. I'm amazed.  
"Why do you stare out of the window?" Frankie walks over to me, putting a light arm around my shoulder; taking me back to the window.  
"You mean, why I look out at the courtyard when I'm thinking?" She points out the window, I nod. "Simple. That's why I stare out the window." She's lowering her voice. She's pointing out of the bars, at an old, almost dead-looking tree. "It hangs over the walls of the Asylum apparently, it's been rumored the cats and rats sometimes use it as an entrance and an exit to come in, take food." She looks almost hopeful "I've been examining it to figure out a way to escape." She sighs "That tree is what gives the girls and I hope.  
"Are you thinking of escaping? Why?" I ask.  
"Although they may act like they are your friends after your dreaded arrival and make you think they're here to help you…" Emilie interrupts Frankie.  
"Hellio and Joyce are not allies here." Frankie walks over to the bottom bunk; and with that I take as a signal that I too should go to bed. So I climb up the ladder, lay down, close my eyes and slowly drop off to sleep.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter two:

[Frankie]

_"No!" I scream and struggle as two of the Gypsy goons drag me towards the large doors of the Asylum. The Gypsy woman in blue leads them there. It's pelting with rain. She's now covered by a large deep blue cloak with a white drawstring that keeps it closed and keeps her somewhat dry. I'm drenched in no more than my boots, mole skin pants, brooks shirt and vest._

_ "Why the hell are you doing this?!" I screamed struggling against them. I broke free and ran in the opposite direction however I was caught again by the gypsy goons. They lift me in the air so that my feet can't touch the ground and I can't run away. The Gypsy woman turns quickly a long claw like fingernail under my chin._

_"Child, do you have any idea what your eyes are an omen of?!" she shouts furiously. I stop squinting due to the rain and look thoughtfully for a moment._

_"Um...No, Otherwise I wouldn't have screamed 'Aaaah why the hell are you doing this" I said in a smart tone and pulling a face to match._

_"Your eyes are the sign of the devil...I have a friend here who will cure you of such a disease" she scowls turning back and proceeding up the large stone steps._

_"But you can't change my eyes; they are my eyes for god sake!" I scream and struggle again_

_"We may not be able to cure your eyes but we can cure your mind" she screams back at me with that evil look in her eyes again._

_She swings the doors open, the warmth it's me hard, it's almost inviting. The receptionist behind the desk looks started at the Gypsy woman._

_"Where is Hellio!" the Gypsy woman snaps and the receptionist practically melts into her chair. _

_"Just a moment I'll find him for you" says the receptionist in a scared tone before scurrying away down the hall. I frown trying to follow her with my gaze but I see nothing. Only hearing slow rhythmic footsteps, they echo down the halls in an ominous feel._

_"Donnas is that you?" asks the voice in a happy tone_

_"Donnas?" I whisper looking at the Gypsy woman_

_"What can I do for you ma'am" asks a tall man, his hair is thinning he's quite skeletal in comparison to the men that have me suspended off the ground by their arms. He is wearing a pair of spectacles. He spies me and smiles coming closer._

_"And who might this be Donnas" he says looking at me_

_"This is Francine Vigilantia she's; Irish, American, and an abomination if you ask me, just look at her eyes, Devils work I tell you Doctor, Devil's work" _

_"Hmm yes" the doctor trails off. Staring into my face his eyes flicker from my left eye to my right Blue to Green._

_"Do you mind Creepy?" I ask my eyes blinking wide_

_"This one will be a bit of work" smiled Dr Hellio "Take her through for processing" He instructs the goons who hold me suspended off of the floor. My eyes widen in fear and I scream._

_"No! No, no, no" I kick and struggle._

_They take me to a large room with stone walls and throw me onto the coble stone floor, it feels damp for some reason under my palms. And I look at the moister on my hand as I can hear doctors and nurses fiddling behind me. I stand up and as I turn around I say_

_"Why is the floor we…" I'm met with a fast gush of water from a large pressure hose. I hold up my arms in a feeble attempt to shield my face. The pressure from the water started to push me back toward the back wall; I slipped on the coble stone and feel on my spin. I screamed in pain by it was drown out by water filling my mouth and almost choking me. I tried to sit up, turning myself over and trying to crawl up to the wall but I slip again because the floor and walls are too wet. I spend about a further ten or fifteen minutes floundering about and slipping everywhere. I could have sworn I heard the nurses laughing at me. And every time I opened my mouth to scream I would get a mouthful of water. The water slows until it's come to a stop._

_"What the hell are you trying to do, kill me?!" I scream my eyes wide and furious. I'm soaked to the bone. I'm sitting up on the cold wet floor my arms slightly behind me to keep me up, one knee bent. I cough and spit a little. Dr Hellio come through and I raise an eye brow as I sit on the coble stone floor with my knee still bent and my elbow now leaning on it. I run fingers through my soaking wet hair, my clothes sticking to me. I can feel my anger boiling to the surface and my fear disappearing. Dr Hellio slowly paces the room is footsteps creating an ominous rhythm._

_"Hello Miss Vigilantia" He says looking into the clip board. I don't respond. He moves his glasses up the bridge of his nose._

_"Do you know why you're here"_

_"My eyes apparently" I snap in a smart tone_

_"Yes, that has become a physical factor of the countless reasons you are here" He says looking up for a brief moment before looking into the clip bored again._

_"You should see some of the testimonies against you" He says looking into the clip bored intrigued and running an index fingers down the first page._

_"Testimonies!?" I ask in quick disbelief my eye brows furrowing_

_"They are really quiet...remarkable" he says flipping a page over and chuckling to himself_

_"What are you talking about?" I ask as I can feel the cold set in and I start to shiver_

_"I hear you're a menace to society" he flips a page_

_"What on earth do you mean? I'm fine, I've never hurt someone on my own accord I try to blend in with people, I get along fine with other people"_

_"One who does not conform to daily order" he flips another page_

_"Does not conform to daily order?! They traveled lands killing noble houses full of families and their helpers...they instructed me to kill those people as they would make them run away!" I shouted outraged_

_"Do you know what Donnas has told me about you?"_

_"No because I don't even know Donnas, in fact I had never even seen her till tonight" I snapped shivering. I stand and Dr Hellio shakes his head at the clip bored._

_"What is it?!" I snap, He ignores me and looks over to two handlers that came with him._

_"Take her to her cell" he said in a stern low voice. "Be sure to complete her water treatment" he said as they came closer to me "This one's going to be a lot of work" he frowned quiet seriously as the handlers cornered me and grabbed at my arms, dragging me towards the door. They stopped as they got closer to Hellio_

_"The public will love her" he smiled before waving them away. They drag me down a hall to what appears to be an infirmary, they hold my down on a gurney and wrap me in ice cold sheets like a cocoon and then strap me to the same gurney_

_"This will be no good for my kidneys" I say smartly and unimpressed to one of the handlers he just looks down and smirks._

_"I could get a chill...or a kidney infection...or...or worse!"_

_I can only look up at this point. Lights flicker and pass above me. I hear the creek of a door or a gate and then they wheel me into a room._

_"You'll pay big" I say to the other of the handlers, leaning toward him as much as the leather straps will allow as they wheel me in "If my hand was free I'd be pointing a abruptly at you but I currently look like a chrysalis"_

_"The Doctor was right...the public will love you...this place will eat you alive" the handler to my left laughed getting close into my face, mere inches from it._

_"We will break you" he whispered. He's breath was warm on my face and smelt putrid. I gagged at the stench. His face contorted into this evil smile. And he laughed again; he took out a baton and raised it above his head. My eyes grew wide and I tried to scream but couldn't, before I could make a sound he brought the baton down._

My eyes snap open wide; I look around in panic keeping my head still but my gaze moves frantic, I'm back in the cell on the bottom bunk, Saphraye sleeping in the bunk above me. I let out a tired sigh thankful it was all just a dream. Being processed was a horrible experience but I knew that for Saphraye a far harder period of time was ahead for tomorrow was show time for the inmates.

I did not fall asleep; instead I stayed awake for long periods of time and paced the room or stared out of the window at the tree. I was half way through a circle which was one of several when I hear a hiss to get my attention

"Psst"

I stop my hands together fingertips to my mouth as if I where preying all though I am not exceedingly religious for some obvious reasons. I look over at Saphraye, she is sleeping which I can understand from her stressful day of processing.

"Psst Frankie" calls the voice again and I know by the way she calls me who it is. It's Emilie she usually knew when I was restless regardless of whether or not I was careful not to make noise. I peered through the bars and across the hall at her.

"Are you ok?" I ask and she nods

"You've been up plotting again haven't you?" I ask with a gentle smirk and a smile that of the Cheshire cat creeps across her face. She nods and a one sided smile grows from my smirk. She checks each end of the hall for any handlers and then slides a leather bound notebook my way and I catch it and pull it through the bars of our cell. I still don't know where she got this from; she's had it ever since I got here.

I checked for any handlers before putting up my index finger to gesture a "Give me a second" I walked over to the window and sat at my usual spot on the windowsill. I ran my fingers over the design on the cover, it rings a bell but I don't know where it's from. I open the book and use the moon light to read what I can. Her plan seems flawless from what I can see. Emilie has been working on an escape since I arrive, perhaps even years before I got here and I have already been here for about five now. I gently close the book come down form the windowsill; walking over to the bars I check again and then slide the book her way.

"When are you thinking of implementing it?" I ask grabbing hold of the bars and leaning on them.

"A week from now, we still need to collect some things before we can begin" Whispered Emilie and I nodded in agreement.

{Saphraye}

I can hear Frankie and Emilie talking. I can't see any light, so it must be quite early in the morning.

"Frank, you should wake her up, she needs to be warned about what'll happen."  
"No Em, we've got to let her sleep, let her have some peace before hell breaks loose. You know as well as I, that there's a 95% chance of Saphraye being a virgin, and you know how the men to ballistic over virgins, to be the one who takes it. The men will be going absolutely nuts! I wouldn't want to be…"  
"You were in her position though; remember when you first got here." I don't hear a reply "I'm sorry to bring that up again."  
"It's ok, I've been dreaming about it, and thinking about it lately." I hear a sigh, but I don't know who from.

"Let's just let her rest ok."  
"Ok, but we should warn her in the morning."  
"Agreed."

I turn over, and try to fall back asleep, Frankie's footsteps have become rhythmic; I open my eyes, I'm soaking wet, up against a wall, freezing, the rhythmic steps have become Dr. Hellio's and he points two chasers to get me. I scream, it's not my voice.

[Frankie]

I sit on the floorboards; they are cold with a thin layer of dust. My back is pressed to the stone walls. I loll my head back and let out a sigh. I look with my eyes only at Saphraye's bunk I can only just see her from where I sit. A tear rolls down my cheek as I stare into the distance with a strong and unfeeling looked washed about my face in case Emilie spots me. I close my eyes and another couple of tears fall as I remember what it was like the time they found out about my secrets. I swore they'd never break me, but they did… in other ways.

{Saphraye}

My eyes spring open Frankie is next to me on the ladder, I'm sweating.  
"Hey, sweaty are you ok."

Her eyes have worry all through them, but a comforting smile is on her face, she begins to stroke my head. I notice my heart is beating painfully hard against my chest.

"You were having a nightmare sweetie." To me, she made me think of a mum.

"Breakfast time!" yells a handler, the cells are unlocked, and we walk to the dining hall. I sit with Frankie, Emilie, Contessa, Captain Maggot, Veronica and Aprella

"So how'd you sleep last night?" asks Aprella "I swear that I heard you screaming."

"Alright." I reply.

"I heard the screaming too, but it could have been one of the other inmates." Says Contessa,

"It wouldn't be uncommon here, but we didn't' hear the screaming as close to us as we did, usually we hear it from the floor above us." Veronica tells me.

"What were you dreaming about?" asks Frankie

"I don't know, I was in room, soaking wet, the rhythmic footsteps of Dr. Hellio, and he sent two handlers, to take me away."

Frankie gasps, her eyes widen, she goes ghostly pale and she stops breathing.

"Frankie."

"Nothing, it's nothing."

Emilie looks at Frankie, she knows something that we don't, I can just tell.

"Saphraye, sit in my spot today." Says Emilie, I obey, and switch seats with her. Emile and Frankie are whispering to each other so quietly, that even when I try to lean in to hear, I can't hear.

[Frankie]

"Are you ok Frank?"

"I'm ok Em...more worried about Saphraye"

"Because of show time"

"Do you think she knows?" I ask her looking a little worried. Emilie grabs hold of my head so I'm forced to look her in the eye.

"Frankie that's not as important right now is it, she may have some psychic ability…if there is such a thing but we don't know for sure. But we have bigger tasks at hand" she says her eyebrows furrowing at me. I gave a single nod from underneath her soft delicate hands.

"Something about this kid forces me to protect her and I don't know what it is, it kind of scares me…I haven't cared this much for someone or something this strongly in a while, it's almost like she's…" I hesitate and gulp before whispering low "My blood"

The girls all knew how family orientated I was despite not having a memory of any family experience except for that of the gypsies who had 'Saved' (More like stole) me from my original family. I treated these girls like sisters. _They _

{Saphraye}

"What do you think they're talking about?" I ask Contessa.

"No idea, this is the first time I've ever seen Emilie and Frankie like this, it must be bad if they're not telling." I keep looking at Frankie; her eyes were about the same as they had been last night, wide with horror.

"Or pretty good." Adds Veronica.

"It's nothing that concerns you girls…" Says Emilie, muttering something to Frankie

Emilie puts a hand on my shoulder and whispers to me "It sort of concerns you though."  
"What?" I ask. I heard her, but I didn't quite hear her.  
"What did she say?" Asks Maggot.  
"I'm not quite sure." I frown. Another announcement, like the one yesterday, booms over the now almost silent dining hall  
"Could miss Saphraye please make her way to Dr Hellio's office. That is all" this time, a shiver crawls up my spine. I stand. The girls stand up, walk over to me and hug me, as if they may not see me again. When they hug me, I panic.  
"You be strong." They whisper. The handler walks over to me, grabs my arm viciously and drags me away from the girls. Their faces paler than I have ever seen them; they resembled solid ghosts. Is it possible for the living, to resemble the dead? I wonder, and with my last glance at the girls my answer was clear…Yes.

The handler takes me past Dr Hellio's office, "I was supposed to go to Dr Hellio's office." I say.  
"No, you're going to the cleansing chambers." I become limp. My nightmare the other night, I wasn't me but it was a warning about this. Dr Hellio is waiting for us in front of a large door.  
"It's nice to see you again Saphraye." He walks over to me, grabs my chin and forces me to look into his eyes. "Such a pretty girl, you will be quite the catch after you've been hosed off." An evil smirk. My heart skips a beat. I can begin to see why the girls said that Dr Hellio was not my friend, but why Dr Joyce? How is she a danger to us? The door is open, tiles, I'm pushed to the ground, it's hard and wet. "Disrobe her" I hear Dr Hellio say. The handler comes up behind me, and rips off my shift.  
"No!" I scream. Covering my body, I hear a door close behind me. I'm left on the floor naked, I manage to crawl to a wall; something told me to while I could. All of a sudden, ice cold water is forced onto my body at such an impact I swore that my spine would break. "Stop!" I scream "Stop! Please!" no-one listens. I'm screaming, not the same scream from my dream though, this is my scream.  
"Turn around!" I hear the yelling voice of a handler over the pounding of the water. I refuse to turn around; I don't want them to see the rest of my body. "Turn around!" he screams this, I start to quiver. I can't let them see me, I can't, I can't. The water is turned off, I'm breathing hard, my heart is pounding painfully against my chest. The door opens, rushed footsteps, closer and closer they came, louder and louder the footsteps sounded. A strong hand grabbed my hair tightly  
"Let go!" I breathe; it's the only way that I can't scream. "Let go!"  
"You're going to turn around now aren't you?" he grabs tighter.  
"No!" tighter grip; he turns my body by my hair, I cover myself with my arms. I see the handler walk out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him, the water starts up again, I can see the look on Dr Hellio's face, and the handlers. Pure enjoyment. After about five more minutes of the water, it is shut off; a towel is thrown at me, and a clean shift. After I'd dried myself, and put on my new shift, I was dragged back to my cell, where Frankie was waiting anxiously.  
"Saphraye!" the handler let me go, and I fell into Frankie's arms. When the cell was locked behind me, I felt the warmth of Frankie's body. I heard the other girls  
"Saphraye are you alright?" Aprella  
"Did they hurt you?" Veronica  
"Did they force you into doing anything?" Maggot  
"You were taken to the cleansing chamber weren't you?" Emilie.  
"She's ice cold." Says Frankie. "Cleansing chambers." She kisses my forehead, and rubs my back with her hand. "It's ok, it's over, it's over." I can hear her starting to cry. She takes me over to the bunk, and puts me on her bed. "I'm not strong enough to put you on the top." She says. Frankie peals the blankets from under me, and wraps me tightly and warmly, like I'm a present.  
"What do you think we should do Em?" asks Contessa  
"I don't have an idea I'm afraid." She says "For the first time, I don't have any idea what to do." I look over to Emilie, she's biting her lip.  
"We have to tell her." Contessa says.  
"T-tell m-me what?" I'm shivering; Frankie goes up the ladder and brings down the blankets, to wrap me up even tighter. Frankie's face is dark.  
"Frankie." Says Veronica. "Tell her, tell her or Emilie will." Frankie walks away to the window sill, to look out and think; it's after noon, and the sun is still up.  
"It's ok Frank" says Emilie "I'll tell her."  
"Thank you." I hear Frankie say, but it's very quiet.  
"They use us as…as play things honey." She sighs, "The beautiful girls here, are chosen once a month, the men choose who they want and they…"  
"Say it's not true!" I yell. Even though I couldn't remember anything about my past I know that I'm a virgin, and I'm positive the doctors know to. I hope at least. It seems like a childhood fantasy to wait until one's married until they have intercourse for the first time.  
"I'm sorry honey, but it is." Says Maggot. Frankie stands up and walks over to me, hugging me.  
"It's happened to all of us, and it doesn't matter to them whether or not you've had sex before. We account for 95% of the asylum's funding. They rely on us, and that's why only the beautiful ones are chosen, the men who come assume that all inmate are beautiful and insane women who are much like Ophelia."  
"But it's not right." I say.  
"Nearly all of us have gotten pregnant at least once, and if it happens there are three options: one-you try to abort yourself with anything you can find, two-tell the doctors and they abort for you, but it's an abominable process or three-" Aprella pauses. "For any girl who goes the full way through the pregnancy, and the girl is having the baby, the doctors take giant tongs and while the baby is coming out, they crush its scull."  
"How do you know this Aprella?" I ask.  
"I've been one of the girls who went through the whole pregnancy, I can only recall one girl in the entire asylum's history of having the baby without the doctors knowing; and keeping it a secret for about four months. The baby cried one night, the chaser's heard it, got Dr Hellio and the girl and the baby were never seen again, I can't remember her name; but she was a real inspiration. For all of us." one girl managed to keep a baby a secret for four months? Wow, I wonder what she had to do to keep it that way.  
"I've heard that for the girls who are more…innocent, they give special consideration, and there is a Auction over them. The man who bids the highest, gets the girl, and he has instructions to make sure she has…special care. If he keeps her a virgin, there will be a second Auction; and the second man will be told to take force if the girl refuses."  
"Has it happened to any of you?" I hear Frankie sigh,  
"It happened to me, the first man was a young, kind fella who understood. He tried to keep it a secret, however the signs were still that I was a virgin, so here came the second Auction and the second man threw me on the bed and…well, you can guess the rest."  
I felt like crying, why were we all getting treated like there was nothing that we were good for but for being toys for men who cared nothing for us! I find myself wondering, and before I can stop myself a question arises from my throat.  
"What is the longest a Auction has gone for?" the girls laugh  
I felt like crying, why were we all getting treated like there was nothing that we were good for but for being toys for men who cared nothing for us! I find myself wondering, and before I can stop myself a question arises from my throat.  
"What is the longest a Auction has gone for?" the girls laugh  
"About six hours." Says Veronica.  
"Six hours?! What would you do during this time?"  
"You would stand on the stage, and then be put into a chair. Once the Auction is over, the winner wheels you off. It's rare to get lucky twice with the men. Dr Hellio knows the ones who don't take, and they've been band I think, there are a few that I haven't seen in months, we can see them from our cell; and don't worry, we'll make sure we watch how yours goes down, and help when and if we can." Contessa smiles at me. "The Auction was over me by the way." Contessa says, my jaw drops.  
"How long have you been here?"  
"About eight years. I'd been here for about a month before the Auction." Contessa sighs, and laughs at the same time. I begin to wonder how long I'll be here until the Auction over me begins. As if reading my mind Maggot says  
"I overheard the doctors talking after you were taken away, did you girls hear it?"  
The girls shake their heads. "Well I heard that they're arranging it for this coming Friday." The blood in my body goes cold, and I can feel it stopping.  
"Let's just hope that someone nice wins." Aprella sighs.  
"There hasn't been a case of double kindness in the history of the asylum" says Maggot.  
"Maybe you'll be the first." Says Emilie hopefully.  
"Double kindness?"  
"When two men leave you a virgin. It's rare even for a single kindness. Usually it's the younger ones who give the kindnesses. But they're starting to get band now, so I can't tell you that you'll be lucky." The girls go to the bars of their cells, as close to us as possible.

"We are the only girls who have not been broken by the doctors." Says Emilie "And we sure as hell will not let them break you." Emilie went to her bed, reached under the mattress, looked around, pulled out a book, and slid it over to Frankie's and my cell. Frankie walks over to it, and picks it up. She walks back over to me; and when she sits down we hear sound, footsteps off in the distance; Frankie hides the book beneath the mattress, despite me sitting on it. To our horror, Dr. Hellio was walking down the corridor, and turn into our hall ward of the asylum. Frankie holds onto me tightly, Aprella, Veronica and Emilie are holding each other, and Maggots and Contessa are holding onto each other. Dr. Hellio stops in front of Frankie's and my cell, the look in his eyes was absolutely terrifying. He took out a key, unlocks the cell door and points at me.  
"Unwrap yourself Saphraye, and come with me." His voice is soft, calm but still vary menacing.

I begin to shiver, Frankie is off in thought, "Miss Saphraye, I will not ask you again, come with me!" this snaps Frankie out of her dream-state.  
"What do you want her for?" she asks calmly  
"That is none of your concern miss Vigilantia." He says, his face darting to hers for a brief moment. He leans over, and rips the blankets off my body, grabbed by arm and pulled me, screaming down the hall.  
"Saphraye!" I could hear the girls shout as I was dragged away.

I'm taken to a part of the asylum that I haven't seen before, it's beautiful. There's a queen sized bed, bright coloured walls, a chandelier that was to die for and yet; the room made fear begin in my heart, and wander through my body very quickly. There's a vanity not far from the bed; he sits me down. A made comes in, "Get her ready." He says, leaning over to me and stroking my chin "She's gonna make us a lot of money." Panic. Words begin to flow through my mind, they're familiar to me, however I don't know where from.  
"Hush my dear, do not fret, all will be well." I can imagine a woman smiling at me, in dim candle light. Dr Hellio walks out of the room, closing the door behind him. The maid picks up a brush and starts to untangle my fiery locks.  
"You're quite the beauty miss." She says in a thick, British accent.  
"Thank you." I whisper  
"It's such a shame you ended up in a place like this. I'd assume you 'ad men fawning all over you 'fore you cam 'ere."  
"I don't know, I awoke with no memory." I sigh  
"Oh my" she gasps "No wonder 'ellio thinks you'll make 'im a lot of money." She puts her hands on my shoulders "Don't fret dearie. It'll all be over quickly; I've seen it for the past twelve years. Gettin' the girls ready for the Auctions."  
"Auctions!" I stand up, she lightly pushes me down onto the seat.  
"Oh beggin' your pardon miss. Please don't tell 'ellio that I said anything, 'e'll 'ave my 'ead if he knew that I told you 'bout 'em." She bites her lip and continues brushing my hair, there are next to no knots in them.  
"It's alright." I say "your secret is safe with me." I smile a sad smile, a pittious smile. This poor girl had to deal with Dr Hellio for twelve years, and here's me complaining about being here for about two days. Some people here have it much worse than others. She finishes brushing my hair and puts it up into a light bun on the top of my head.  
"Follow me miss." I stand and follow her to a bathroom. I could see steam rising from the bath. She removes my shift and stockings; she helps me into the bath, it's painful on my freezing skin, then it becomes strongly pleasant.

After I had bathed, the maid helps me to dry and into a new set of stockings and a clean (new looking) shift. All the ones that the asylum had were dingy and grutty with muck. She takes me back to the vanity where she takes out my hair, brushes it again and braids it. I hadn't noticed how my hair was down to my waits. Once it was braided, the maid called for a handler to take me back to my cell. As we waited I decide to ask her a bit about herself. "What's your name?" I begin with.  
"Julia." She says. "I'm twenty nine, thir'y the month 'fter next." She sighs.  
"Why have you been here since you were 17?" I ask. She sighs and laughs at the same time.  
"Because my family ran into financial trouble. They contact'ed 'ellio, and told 'im that I was a 'ard worker, and they really needed the money. So I got a job as a maid for the girls. I've seen some lovely souls wrecked in my day miss. I'd 'ate to see you be one of 'em." The handler walked in.  
"Come on." He said to me. I stood up and followed him to Frankie's and my cell. Frankie wasn't there. The other girls were in their cells, but not Frankie.  
"Where's Frankie?" I ask in a panic.  
"She's been taken to see Dr Joyce." Veronica says. "Don't worry, she'll be back in ten or so minutes. Get some rest; you'll need it for tomorrow." Aprella hits her. "What?"  
"She can't know." I see her mouth. I climb the ladder to my bunk, I'm absolutely exhausted.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter three:

{Saphraye}

"Dinner time!" I'm jolted awake, the sun is setting. Frankie's head pops up.  
"It's dinner time sweetie." She climbs off the ladder, and I follow suit, climbing down and following her to the dining room, I'm stopped however.  
"You're having dinner with the boss tonight girlie." Says a handler. Frankie and Emile look back. They have a plan, I can tell. I'm steered away from the dining room.

"Here she is." Says Dr Hellio as I walk into an exquisite dining room. Dr Joyce and many men are sitting at the large table. "This is Saphraye Mellinia gentlemen." There's a polite murmur between them. The handler forces me into a seat at the head of the table, directly across from Dr Hellio and next to two young-looking men. I nod. A waiter brings out the food; I (of course) get a smaller serving than everyone else. It is high-quality food. I pick up my cutlery and cut off small bits of meat, and eat them savoring every last bite of it. The vegetables were perfectly cooks, I savored these too.  
"How old are you Saphraye?" asks an old-looking gentleman,  
"I-I'm S-s-seventeen." I manage to blurt out.  
"So young." Says another man, he looks middle aged. In fact, all the men appear to be in either middle-aged or old, only two young-looking ones, and they're next to me. Going down the sides of the table, the men introduce themselves and have about a five minute bragging period about themselves each. When it gets to the two young ones, they are quiet, as if they don't know what to say. The one to the left of me says  
"Joel McCraufields, I work for a high-end law firm, I have since I was nineteen, I'm now twenty three. They respect me highly." He seems so full of himself, despite how shy he seemed before he began to talk.  
"I just work as an apprentice for a clockmaker." Says the other young boy, he doesn't say his name.

The clock strikes eight. Have I been here for two hours? "Well, it's about time you go back to your cell isn't it Miss Mellinia." I nod. Dr Hellio calls over a nearby handler, and he lightly grabs my arm, and escorts me out. Once out of the sight of the men the handler grips my arm tighter. The girls are relived when I arrive at the cell. Frankie embraces me warmly  
"I thought they had killed you" Frankie says once the handler is gone.  
"Did they do the Auction?" asks Maggot. I shake my head.  
"No. I was in a room with a large number of men, and we ate food, real food. The men talked about themselves, and I just sat there quietly. There were only two young boys and they were next to me, and I was at the head of the table. Dr Hellio was far from at the head, but at the other end." The girls seem transfixed.  
"I guess they were buttering you up." Says Veronica. "Guys like to do that to the girls they're gonna fuck." I sigh. Frankie lets go of me, and I walk to the window sill and look out, taking Frankie's place. I can see the men walking out, each with a happy smile on their faces, talking gaily and obviously pleased with how their visit turned out. The men are gone, and I begin to look at the tree that gives Frankie and the girls hope.  
"Frankie!" I call. She runs over to me  
"What? What is it?" she asks in a panic.  
"Look!" I say pointing through the bars. We can just see a colony of rats coming out from the bottom of the tree. Frankie begins to tear up.  
"So it is true." She whispers. She walks over to the bed, reaches under the mattress and pulls out the book. She shows me part of the plan.  
"Escaping through the tree?" I ask. "But there wouldn't be anywhere big enough for us to crawl through." The girls sigh.  
"Never underestimate friendships made with the animals Saphraye." Contessa says. We hear footsteps. Frankie scurries for the bed, and manages to hide the book just in time to run back to me when a handler walks in, doing his rounds.  
"Lights out!" he says. The girls on the top bunks climb their ladders (including me) and the girls on the bottom tuck themselves in. I lay on my back, as exhausted as I am, I cannot sleep. My eyes will close, but they'll open not long after. The same woman's voice from when I was in the fancy room about telling me not to fret returns. Singing a lullaby.  
"Goodnight my little girl, goodnight my baby. Sweet dreams may you have. Your mother will protect you, your sisters will fight for you. Sleep, sleep, sleep, dream, dream, dream." I close my eyes and fall off to sleep.

_[Dream]  
I'm a little girl again, in an old house, beautiful, but old. "Breakfast is ready sweetheart." Says a woman, I open my eyes, and rub them.  
"Good morning mummy." I say.  
"Did you sleep well honey?" she says kissing me on the forehead  
"Yes mummy."  
"Well I'm going to finish preparing breakfast and then you come down when you're ready ok sweetheart." I nod. I skip down the stairs and everything goes dark. The woman who I had called "mother" is laying bloody on the ground, a man was near her, covered with her blood. Two other girls are in the house with us, they're twins. I run to them, the man is soon upon us, we scream_

_I wake panting, cold sweat glistening on my forehead, my throat feels scratched, have I been screaming?_

I wake panting, cold sweat glistening on my forehead, my throat feels scratched, have I been screaming? Dr Joyce is standing over me, shaking me. "Come back to us Saphraye! Come back!"  
"They're dead." I pant. Dr Joyce hugs me.  
"My office, now." She says. Climbing off the ladder. I sit up, and hold my forehead. Frankie is at the window. "Saphraye, my office." I slowly manage to climb down the ladder, I stumble and Dr Joyce catches me. She's in her night stuff. She grabs my wrist, and drags me to her office, she sits me down on a chair and she sits in front of me on another chair. "Now, Saphraye. Tell me about your nightmare, you were screaming something fierce, I could hear it from my night quarters." I pause for a moment  
"I don't know, it wall all right and happy, I was a little girl; and when I went down stairs…" I bust into a fit of tears. She puts a comforting hand on my knee.  
"It was just a nightmare, I guess that you may be thinking about a horrible event you heard about; or realising your childhood is over. I'm not sure, but if you have the nightmare again and the screaming is that intense then I'm afraid that you'll have to be put on medication and if that doesn't work then…" she sighs "I'm afraid, it'll be electroshock therapy for you." I nod.

"Now, go back to bed, it's four o'clock in the morning."

"Four o'clock?"

she nods, a handler walks in and walks me slowly back to the cell, where Frankie is waiting for me. She flings her arms around me.  
"I was so worried for you." She says. "When I first heard you scream I did nothing, but when it wouldn't stop, then started to panic." I sigh.  
"I'm sorry Frankie." I climb the ladder and close my eyes.

[Frankie]

I watch Saphraye climb the ladder and go back to my place at the window. The handler has a glass of water for Saphraye however it seems to have tiny bubbles in the liquid, I frown in suspicion, and the moon light hits the glass illuminating the water to reveal it's cloudy. That can only mean one thing; they've put a tranquiliser in the water.

I believe it to be part of the procedure for the auction. So I stand back and keep an eye on the handler.

The sun rises and I have fallen asleep at the window sill and so I awake and stay staring through the bars on the window, down at the long gravel road leading up to the Asylum's front steps, my eyes run down it to the large wrought iron gates and for a second I think I see him standing at the locked gates of the asylum; staring at me, can he see me at our cell window, is he really there standing at the gates or is this my imagination.

I stare out of the window remembering his beautiful face; His soft pink lips, those beautiful eyes, His soft pale skin, the slight stubble on his jaw line, His dark short hair, the smile that stole me. A tear rolls down my cheek.

"Show Time!" Screams a handler and the cell doors open

A handler grabs me and as I quickly turn back to the window I see that he is gone, it must have been my imagination I look up at Saphraye's bunk

"Be brave we'll save you" I shout hoping to get through but the handler just laughs and tosses me out into the hall way instructing me to walk. They heard us like sheep down to the music hall. Where we are split into cell blocks and ushered into dressing rooms.

The Girls, Emilie, and I are ushered into one room with two maids. We given new shifts and are helped into them as they are tied at the back a maid helps me into a pair of long girly striped stockings all the while I scowl and sulk in my protest. Captain Maggot giggles at me

"Shut up!" I say sitting down as the maid starts brushing my hair. She rips at my hair with the brush and I quickly pull away

"Hey, watch it!" I snap, snatching the hair brush from her and running it through my dark brown hair and then running it through my purple and blue bangs before another of the maids tries to put make up on me and Emilie quickly pushes her out of the way to take over. I look at Emilie's right cheek, there is a little heart drawn in eye liner. Emilie used this symbol as one of protection, I remember her giving me one at my first auction and show. I smile her way and thank her

"Where is Saphraye?" Asks Contessa as Emilie works away

"The handler gave her a tranquiliser in water last night, she was out cold and they just left her there"

"All part of procedure" sighs Emilie

{Saphraye's Dream}_  
Twins are sitting on a double bed, next to mine. "Come now Francine, you know better than anyone that the cello is better than the violin"  
"Pa-lease, the violin is better than cello. Everyone knows that Bearia." I laugh  
"No," I say "the boice is better than any other instrument. You both should know that." Laughter.  
"Alright Saphs, you're right." Sarcasm from one of the twins.  
"No need to be cruel." Says the other twin. _

Light gets into my eyes, and I open my eyes. The sun has risen, and there's no one in Frankie's and my cell, I look over at the other cells, no-one.

"What the hell?" I ask out loud. There's no clocks, so I don't know what time it is. I walk down the ladder, walk over to the window sill; kneeling, I look out the window. A large group of men are gathered at the gate, I can see Dr Hellio letting them in. I can imagine him saying

"Come in, come in gentlemen." I despised him, Frankie and the other girls were right; he wasn't my friend at all. I jump off the sill back onto my feet. I frown at the bars, We're getting out of here I think to myself Tonight! I run over t to the bars and grip the m tightly with my hands as if I was going to rip the door off its hinges (I've tried before, didn't work).

"Hey!" I call, I don't see anyone but knowing the handlers, one would be around the corner if an inmate was still in her cell. "Is anyone there?!" I was right. Out comes one of the smaller handlers. I'd learnt not to judge the handlers by their size as I have been dragged to and from places by this one.

"You want out?" he says slyly getting the key off his belt and dangling it in front of my face. My grip tightens, I grit my teeth. He laughs. "Well you don't get out until the boss says so." My hands are white with the amount of force I'm using. There's a little device on his shoulder, Hellio's voice comes through it

"Let her out James." He says "Drag her out of bed if you have to."

"Got it boss." James puts the key in the key hole and drags me out.

He takes me to the room where Julia had pampered me the day before. She came out.

"Get her ready for…" he looks at me "You know what." An evil smile and he throws me on the ground.

"Yes sir." She says running over and helping me up. When James is gone Julia helps me to the vanity and sits me down. She takes my hair out of the braid and brushes it again. There's a bowl full of flowers on the vanity: blue, pink, yellow, orange, red, white so many colours and all so beautiful.

"The Auction's today. Isn't it?"

Julia sighs and nods.

"I'm 'fraid so. Nuffin' we can do except 'ope that you get a nice young man." She picks up the first flower, a small pink one and places it in my hair. I reach into the bowl and pick out the largest one, a large pure white rose.

"That'll go in last."

"It's so beautiful so…p-p…" I can't bring myself to say the word. As I know that within a few hours I won't be pure anymore. Julia strokes my shoulders with her thumbs.

"Don't fret miss. Shall I sing you a song that my mother used to sing to me when I was scared?"

I nod.

"When skies are grey, and you are blue, remember mother's 'ere for you. Come into mother's arms. 'arm cannot come to you as you are in my arms." Julia clearly grew up in a loving household. "Meh mother cried when she gave me to 'ellio."

"Is any of your family still alive?" she shrugs, picking up another flower: royal blue, so vibrant it almost hurt my eyes.

"I don't know. 'ellio keeps my family a secret, and every time I ask 'im 'e threatens to 'urt me or any of the girls right in front of me. So I've learnt to keep meh mouth shut." I clench my fists.

"That's horrible!"

"Don't I know it, but there's nuffin' I can do about it." Sighing she puts flower after flower in my hair until the large rose is all that's left. "Pass me the rose would you love? 'ellio says that it must be in your 'air."

I reluctantly pass the white rose to Julia.

"Come on lovie." She says. "Time to go to the stage, your make up will be done there." I stand and Julia escorts me to a large door. She opens it and the first people I see are the exact ones I need to see. Emilie rushes over to me sit's me down and begins to do my make-up. She uses red lipstick and blackest black eyeliner to draw a heart on my left cheek.

"It's for protection." She tell me.

"She always does it for us, but only us because we're close to her." Frankie says "She did it for all of us for our Auctions." I sigh.  
"It'll be alright honey" Aprella says. I stand and Emilie, Frankie, Contessa, Aprella and Veronica hug me.  
"Alright!" calls a stage hand "Emilie, Frankie, Contessa, Aprella and Veronica, you're up!" I'm ripped from the girls and they're pushed out on stage.

[Frankie]

The orderlies soon come in and rush us through to the stage. We stand in the left wing waiting our turn. I hear Aprella gasp suddenly. I look over to her. She's peeking out at the audience just enough so she can see them but they cannot see her.

"Emilie" she calls in a whisper "Emilie come quick" she says waving her over. I am sure to ignore Aprella for some faint reason I am not sure of

"Is that him?" she asks Emilie who squints at someone in the audience, her eyes grow wide.

"Frank I think you need to see this" Says Emilie

"What why?" I ask "I'm already uncomfortable and I can't breathe"

"No, you do need to see this" she says in a hurry and pulls me to where Aprella and she are standing. Emilie doesn't even need to point I see him instantly. Her pointing confirms he must be real as the others see him too. He looks uncomfortable but determined. He is wearing a finely tailored black suite with a white vest and shirt with a deep purple cravat. A man next to him taps him and the man starts to converse making obscene gestures with his hands. He squirms in his chair and pretends to agree, says something and then hides the fact he rolls his eyes as he looks away.

My heart skips a beat it's really him. But what is he doing here.

"What is he doing here?!" I ask turning to Emilie

"How am I to know why he's here?" she shrugs with a frown

"Perhaps to rescue you Frankie" suggests Contessa

"Or he's become a pig in the years he's been gone" Veronica added

"John" I whisper and a tear falls again.

"Get ready, you lot!" says the Host placing a top hat atop his head, fixing his tie and curling his bright fire orange beard. He stepped out on stage and the curtains draw back and reveal him to the audience.

"We here at The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls are very proud to present the Asylum Revue"

The Audience claps and I peek out at John again, He claps his eyes full of regret. A low drum roll starts and begins to grow the further Barkley goes on with his act.

"Step right up! We bring to you the finest entertainment and I am pleased to be your humble servant, Accept our hospitality, indulge in abnormality, A portrait of insanity, Wrapped in a blanket of pure humanity, I give you…"

The Drum roll grows louder

"Girls!" he ends in a flourish and holds out his arm to stage right, The circus like music starts and the first set of girls are pushed out from the right wing and onto the stage and paraded about. A Barkley step to the side of the stage to sit upon a slightly raised platform to the stages left and goes on with his act.

"Some of them are really quite attractive as you'll see. But some are truly hideous - I'm sure that you'll agree, while others still look rather quite a lot like you and me but you mustn't let them fool you, cause they're no ordinary girls and we've a steady supply" he announces as another group of girls are paraded around like animals.

"This is the real thing, my friends: 100% authentic mentally ill! Accept no imitations!" Announces Barkley

"Or so you think" I mutter under my breath and the girls laugh along with me.

"For a little extra on the side we can arrange for a slightly more intimate encounter wink, wink" Barkley announces standing and giving a wink and nudging the air. And we all roll our eyes. The girls being paraded around are now huddled upstage all looking fearful into the audience and I see John shift uncomfortably again.

"Has anyone noticed how girly Barkley is?" Asks Maggot looking up at him with a confused look upon her face as we stay crouched closer to the side his platform is on we all let out another light collective giggle.

"For just a tuppence a handful pills to feed the inmates, we've got pills for: Depression, Obsession, Aggression, possession, indiscretion, there's a pill for everything these days!" announces Barkley as he sits. And it's finally our turn to be pushed out onto stage and paraded around too, the stage lights are hot shining. Barkley comes down from is platform with another floury and a leap.

"Now, has anybody any clever questions for your guide? For a penny more, go on and ask, we've nothing here to hide" he exclaims with a wide sinister smile and John winces however tries to look as interested as he can despite this seems to be quiet a painful process. There are several voices who try to grab Barkley's attention to ask questions.

"Yeah right, said Veronica as she passes me during our parading "doesn't say anything about the torture do they?" she adds on our second go around.

John than spots me and his face falls. I'm not sure if he's staring in awe, surprise or horror or if he is even staring at me. It's a mixed expression. I notice his tears well even though is a little shrouded in the shadows of the music hall and the stage is lit up like a Christmas tree.

_I was dragged out of the cart by an orderly and the stout man that one the auction, I try to crawl back into the cart holding onto the black varnished door frame, and they pull on me harder and harder._

_"Gee this one's bloody strong" says the stout man gripping one of my legs_

_"She's half Irish I hear, the Irish one's are always feisty" says the handler through clenched teeth as he pulls on my other leg. I somehow manage to twist _

_"FECK OFF YOU EEJITS!" I scream and they laugh at my slight Irish accent. They pull harder and I slip for a moment but catch the door handle of the cart. I feel them grab up my legs and I scream in horror._

_"No, no, no!" my grip slips and my head soon_

_ I'm dragged into what appeared to be a watchmakers shop. I look up at the sign 'Dare Clocks' it reads. We enter and I am hit by a comforting warm feeling, the smell of what I think is oak or pine and a faint hint of coffee and the sound of hundreds of clocks ticking with life around us. Almost everything is made of a beautiful dark mahogany wood. The counter, the cold floors under barefoot. The room was very beautiful._

_"Brother look what I brought to you for your birthday" smiled the short stout man_

_"For the last time Marko how many times must I tell you, you are not my brother" I hear a man's voice shout from a back room somewhere._

_"But John come and see, it's very pretty" He says with a smile my way and I glare at him_

_"Marko for the last time I am very busy with my quota" says a man as we hear him emerge from the back room and come through to the front show room. He walked out with his head down to reveal a thick mop of dark brown hair. He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to just below the elbow and the first few buttons undone to show a small tuft of chest hair out of the top, a brown vest and slacks and black leather lace up shoes. He lifts his head and takes a pair of magnifying goggles off of his head and lets the brass goggles hang around his neck. When he sees me he seems stunned and rendered speechless._

_"Who…Who might your friend be Marko?" he asked blinking with this astounded look on his face. And taking a sip of coffee from the cup he brought with him from the back room._

_"That's what I've been trying to tell you Brother" exclaimed the stout man dubbed Marko_

_"She's your gift" he beams and the man called John spits his mouth full of coffee past me and all over Marko. He looks over at me as he takes out his handkerchief and hands it to Marko who is glaring at him now. I smile at how funny his reaction is and then curtsey out of politeness. Something about this man told me he was able to be trusted, perhaps it was because his eyes where much like my own. One green and one blue._

_"Marko why did you bring me a girl for my birthday?" The man named Jack said nervously looking at the handler behind us and then returning his eyes to Marko_

_"You need to let a load off" laughed Marko and I looked at him with a disgusted face._

_"If you won't I will" he added with a chuckle and both Jack's and my own face fall. _

_"I paid good money for her" Marko puts his arm around me and I pulled away. Jack's hand then grabbed hold of mine_

_"I've changed my mind" he glares as Marko and the handler. Marko's smile changes and Jack walks me upstairs. He stops midway with his hands on my hips as I stand infront of him._

_"Please, do give us some privacy" he says quiet sternly before gently ushering me up the stairs and to a door hidden in shadows._

"Quiet!" We here Barkley shout and everyone is silenced "You sir" he continues pointing to a large wealthy looking man.

I can't take my eyes off of him. He runs his short, think dark brown hair and tries to compose himself. I can see him struggling. And trying not to cry, every man in the world may tell you that a man who cries is not a man at all…but to the contrary a man who cries over a woman is more of a man and especially a gentleman then any of the male species who doesn't.

_"You live up here?" I ask _

_"Yes I do…far better than living in my parents' house" he said unlocking the door he leans in close to my ear his hand still on the door nob_

_"Keep your voice down, they'll hear you" his whispers in my ear_

_"You see my father owns this shop and having three sons and a daughter he was surprised I decided to work in the shop. So this up here is where I live far easier than living in a mansion on the out skirts of town" he says turning to the side to smile at me and opening the door. He gestures for me to walk in and there is a beautiful apartment, mostly made of wood much like the show room. He closes the door behind us and I stand awkwardly in the centre of the room hands behind my back and holding onto my elbows forcing my arms to cross a little. I turn around to him and he's standing near the door hands in pockets and smiling at me._

_"What is it?" I ask_

_"Marko was right about one thing" he says coming closer. My eyes grow wide, was I wrong in my judge of character of Jack?_

_"What was it?" I ask feeling a little nervous_

_"You really are beautiful" he smiles kindly_

_"T…thank…thankyou" I stammer nervously_

"I have a question" Says an older man perhaps in his sixties as he stands up

"Has any patient ever been released, would you send her home if her bizarre behaviour were decreased?" he asks and Barkley's sinister smile comes back. John and I still stare at each other.

"For the good of our society, they aren't to reproduce, so while they may pretend propriety  
we'll never let them loose" Barkley answers with a laugh and John's eyes snap to him with a horrified look. And I see him whisper "What?"

_Could I really be wrong about this young man's intentions? He seemed so kind a minuet ago and I could no longer read him the way I had before._

_"Don't be mistaken miss I do not wish to harm you in any way" he says sensesing my fear and holding up his hands, palms open as if to show that he is unarmed. "I've heard about what they do to girls such as yourself in that retched place" he says lower and putting out his hand for me to shake and I do._

_"Jonathan Dare is my name, but people call me John" he says with a gentle smile._

_"Francine Vigilantia, but my friends call me Frankie...and what might I be allowed to call you Mr Dare?"I ask_

_"You can call me whatever you wish ma'am" He smiles playfully, coming closer and brushing hair off of my face and behind my ear._

_"That's better I can see you're beautiful..." he stops and stares_

_"Your eyes" he gasps in surprise_

_"What is it?" I ask in panic_

_"Heterochromia iridum" he grins "I have it too, as you can see, where you born with yours?" he asks and I shake my head_

_"I'm not sure how I became this way" I say looking down into my feet_

_"I wasn't born with eyes like these; I was thrown from the second story of my family's home" he then frowns down at my hand and then touches my for arms with his warm hands_

_"You're freezing" He frowns looking down at my arms_

_"You where thrown?" I ask quickly changing the subject_

_"I fell head first into the garden bed below and hit my head on a rock" he says looking away and my eyes grow wide as he tells me his story_

_"Who threw you?" I ask and he runs finger through his hair as he walks to a large wardrobe, he takes out a blanket that looks like it's made of sheep's wool._

_"My real brother and Marko" He explains coming over to me and wrapping me in the blanket._

_"Marko?!" I gasp pointing to the door and he nodded_

_"Marko and his parents have known my family for many years...he is a year older than I, however through school he was in my class" He says walking through to the kitchen, taking out a large Iron teapot and putting it on the stove. He then puts a few logs into the fernace and make a small fire inside and shuts the door. He then grabs the teapot fills it with water and then places it back onto the stove to boil._

_"Would you like some tea Francine" he smiles kindly as he prepares a ball infuser with a substance I have never seen before. I stare at him confused and surprised._

_"It's ok I'll make you a cup" he smiles_

I look over to John and mime a "Please help" he nods once and gives his look of determination. Before we're ushered off. The curtains close, the lights dim and as we are headed like sheep Saphraye passes us.  
"Her Auction is starting" I whisper a look of worry washed over my face and Emilie looks back at me and I think I see a tear roll down her cheek and I notice she has her fingers crossed behind her back.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter four:

{Saphraye}

The rest of the girls are pushed out into the wings, but I'm kept backstage.

"And now…" says the man on the stage as Veronica (the last one to leave the stage) gets backstage.

"We have a very special treat for one of you." My heart begins to beat extremely fast and hard.

"We have a new inmate and guess what, she's a virgin!" the men go ballistic.

"And here she is!" I'm pushed out to wolf whistles, yahoos and more. There's one man who is sitting in his seat, not doing anything. Planning his move probably.

"Now shall we start the bidding at £100?"  
"£200!" calls out a man in the front row.  
"£600!" calls out the man who had sat there doing nothing when I had come out  
"£640!"  
"£1280!" The man who had done nothing when I entered again. He was doubling every offer. He wanted me that badly, I'd make him broke most likely.  
"£3000! I'd like you to try and beat that junior!" calls a man who looks like he could be in his 60's.  
"£10,000!" My eyes widen, he didn't just double it, he's tripped it and then some. This is going to be a very interesting day.  
"£15,000!"  
"£15,890!"  
"£50,000!" This guy has got to be made of money, I mean fifty grand! The men go silent  
"Ok £50,000 going one…going twice…"  
"£70,000!" DAMN IT! And here we go again.

I'm put into a wheelchair after about two hours, the sun goes down. And rises again; the sun is telling me that it's noon. This Auction has been going on for twenty hours.

"£1,345,900!" the young man is still going! It now seems to be a race to see who has the deepest wallet because it seems to be gains him and another wealthy looking man around the age of 50.  
"£2,795,573! And that's my final offer. I highly doubt that you can beat that young boy, good luck in about twenty years' time." It's nearly over  
"£2,795,73 going once…going twice…"  
"£4,379,732!"  
"And the winner is John Dare!" John reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash, counted it (which took another hour) and handed it to the man on the stage.

"Now take your prize."

He picks me up as if I were his bride and takes me to where I had gotten ready earlier that day. He puts me gently on the bed.

"I know you're a friend of Francine… Frankie." I nod.

"I don't wanna have to do this, but I've heard of what'll happen to you if I don't." he sighs and sits on the bed next to me.

"Have you ever done it?" I ask.

"Yes but I didn't want to. That's why I let the girls keep their virginity, because theirs is much more special than mine I guess"

"Why did you pay all that money?"

"Because I do what I can. I know that I shouldn't, as it keeps this wrenched place in motion; but if I didn't you'd get some cruel bastard who'd take you whether you kicked and screamed or just lied there." I sit up

"Then why don't you just take what you bought? Why do you let someone else have what you paid for?"

"Because I don't feel right doing it. I know that they'd feel obliged to do it."

"It's true, but you understand and are kind." I say. He laughs "I always wanted to wait until I was married, and unless I get out of here within the next two days that's not going to happen."

He puts a hand on my knee.

"Innocence is something that you can never get back once it's gone Saphraye, I hope you know that. And I don't want you to have to give it up to someone who'll destroy you. You're a Porcelain doll, fragile."

"Are you always at the Auctions?" he nods

"Yes. Whenever Frankie is…up for fun, I try and pay the most. We always talk and never do anything. But she told me what happened to her after I'd gone. Horrible, the man just threw her onto the bed ripped off her shift, took off his pants did it and left without a word. I don't want to see that happen to you. But I don't want you to feel as if you have to have sex with me either." He puts his hands to his head.

"I'm so confused!"

I put my hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok." I say "I understand, but you know how to handle Porcelain don't you?" he nods.

"Not many men know these days. I'm one of the few in the world who do."

"John." I say, he looks at me with eyes that I've seen on the girls many times, "Don't let me become broken." I say. I put my right hand on his cheek. "It's ok." I hug him, and he hugs me back, he begins to cry.

"I'll feel bad after." He says

"And you think I won't?" I make him look me in the eye and wipe away his tears.

"I'm allowed to stay at maximum 24 hours after the Auction. So if we are to do it, we must do it in that time."

"If I don't lose my virginity to the man I marry, I want to lose it to a gentleman; and you are my last hope of that." I say. I sound like a demandable prostitute! I think to myself. I can see the pity in his eyes.

[Frankie]

I pace up and down our cell, my hands in a praying gesture and my thin fingers held to my lips.

You could hear them calling and cheering, bidding on her like she where meat and John was sent into save her. The last time John and I spoke we had met for our usual tea, heavy petting and conversation but I couldn't stop worrying about Saphraye and so John and I devised a plan there and there for him to bid on her and win. I knew that Donnas had a bank account full of copious amounts of money, Don't ask where a gypsy got her money but she would send me to give it to a banker named Gareth so I knew where we could find enough money for Saphraye.

The shouting of numbers I could not make out from behind our walls had ceased. It was going to be a long 24 hours. And seeing John tore at me inside so much. Thoughts ran frantic through my head as I paced from one end of our cell to the other.

"Do you think John won?" Asked Maggot

"I don't know it was too hard to tell" I say not moving my hands away from my lips and still pacing.

"Will you stop is Frankie You're making me dizzy" sighs Contessa as she watches me walk around my cell restlessly like a tiger in captivity.

"Then don't fucking WATCH ME!" I snap, my voice slowly growing louder with each word. Contessa lets out a small tired sigh and then turns away from me.

"Quiet you!" a handler yells at me

"Shut your pie hole you British Gobaw!" I snap at a guard and I hear him leave in an upset huff.

"I'm just trying to get you to calm down" she whispers and gives a cute little pout

"Frankie, please stop Hun" asks Emilie watching me begin to pace again through her bars and ours.

"I shouldn't have sent him…" I sob.

"If you didn't Saphraye would be in far worse than she is now, John is a good man Frankie, you've both done the right thing here"

"But what if he does" I sigh as I stop pacing and lean against the wall. My eyes well with tears.

"You Can't stop him Frank, He's a grown man he'll fuck her if he wants to" says Veronica coldly

"Don't say that Veronica" I say softly my voice shaking. The tears spill from my eyes and run down my face. I slide slowly down the wall.

"Frankie what would you rather, Saphraye be safe in the hands of John or to have some disgusting old man who will harm her?" Asks Emilie, she's trying to get me to think rationally now, something I don't do often enough.

"I'd much prefer her to be safe"

"Look at it this way Frankie, if he doesn't and he is found out than they will ban him and you'll never see him again, if he does, Saphraye is safer from the handlers and doctors and maybe even Hellio" explains Veronica coming up to the bars. Veronica was known for winding me up but she was also known for giving me a cold hard verbal slap in the face to bring me back to reality when I needed it.

"I love him Veronica, I truly love him with all my heart" I say softly and letting the tears fall as I rest my elbows on my knees and pick at my dirty and already short fingernails. I pull and chew at them until my right index finger starts to bleed at the tip because I have ripped off half of my fingernail and bitten through a little of my flesh.

{Saphraye}

"You love Frankie don't you." He sighs, and nods.

"Yes. I do. At least I think I do. She's just so captivating. Yet I'd hate to see what kind of brute you would get stuck with if we do not do it." Such a gentleman.

"You do what you feel is right." I say with my hand on his cheek.

"I don't know what's right. That's the problem." He sighs.

"I'm scared." I say. "I'm scared of what'll happen if we don't and I'm afraid of what'll happen if we do. Because from what I understand it makes no fucking difference! Excuse my foul language." He puts a hand on my cheek.

"If I regret it when it's over…I will apologise. And will not be able to stop apologising."

We hug and I feel him undo the tie on the back of my shift. Off it comes, my naked body exposed to him. He slowly takes off his cloths, piece by piece, slowly and precisely. Tears already begin in my eyes, and I can see the tears in his. When his undergarments are off, we are both naked on the bed.

"Well…" he says , I lay down

"This is it."

He gets on top of me and it begins. He begins to thrust, moving deeper and deeper inside me until he's as far as he's able to go. I squeak, the pain is somewhat enjoyable, but unbearable. I begin to thrust the best I can, the pain is beginning to subside and be replaced with pure pleasure. He begins to kiss my neck over and over but never moving any lower or higher. I begin to move my hands through his hair, down his arm and move a hand onto my breast. He squeezes softly. We begin to pant and then I scream, not I pain

"Should we stop?" he ask panting

"No!" I manage "Keep going." He begins to go a little harder and it gets more pleasurable. And my screaming gets louder and louder.

After god knows how long, I feel him come out of me and lay next to me. We are panting so hard. My heart is pounding extremely hard against my chest; I put my hand over my left breast where my heart lays.

After another ten or so minutes and we catch our breath.

"That was…enjoyable." I say.  
"I know." He says

"I am sorry that I couldn't do this for Frankie."

I roll over to my side and look at him, leaning on my hand

"There's nothing that you can do about your past, no one can. But now you can see if maybe the two of you can do it. And maybe someone will be able to give me the pleasure that you have, and if you ever want me again, just…just let me know ok." He nods. A knock on the door.

"Decent?" it was Julia

"N-no!" I call, John grabs my shift and passes it to me. I turn around and he does it back up for me in the same way he had undone it, gentle. Afterwards he scurries for his undergarments and cloths. Once he is dressed I call

"C-come in." she walks in with Hellio.

"Have fun did we?" he asks.

"Yes sir." John says, he doesn't look him in the eye, his voice shakes a little.

"Well I'm afraid that 24 hours is up so you have to go." Hellio pouts.

"Come now dearie time to go back to the cell" Julia walks over to me and helps me off the bed, I begin to walk funny, my groin is saw.

Julia escorts me all the way back to the cell with no handler. Frankie sees me and knows exactly what had happened.

Julia escorts me all the way back to the cell with no handler. Frankie is sitting on the sill, when the cell door creeks open she turns and jumps off the sill as if she's been electrocuted and runs over. Julia and Frankie seem to be around the same height so Frankie was looking Julia straight in the eye. I was shorter than the two, so I had to look up at them. However something told me that Frankie was pissed, and was aware of what had transpired.  
Julia walks off, locking the cell behind her. I walk up to the sill, kneeling down and looking out. I can see John leaving, escorted by Hellio. I don't feel required to call him "Doctor" unless I'm in his presents now.

"He's quite something isn't he." Says Frankie.  
"Yes, he is." I agree I slide away from the window and face Frankie. She walks over to me, picks me up by the collar of the shift and pins me up against the wall.

"F-Frankie what are you doing?"  
"Frankie! Stop this!" Calls Aprella.  
"Did you do it?! Did you!?" she shakes me. "Did you?!"  
"Frankie!" Calls Veronica "Remember what we told you! He's a fucking grown man and can fuck her if he wants!"

Frankie moves a hand from one of my shoulders and grabs my neck  
"Frankie…please….stop!" I manage to say through gasps for air.  
"Frankie!" call the girls she lets me fall to the floor. I crawl away from her and to the ladder and climb up to my bed. I look at Frankie wide-eyed. She collapses on the floor hugging herself. I close my eyes, I don't know why. But I'm exhausted.

When I open my eyes again it's dark, but I can hear whispers between Contessa and Maggot. "Do you think Saphraye and John did it?" Maggot  
"Did you see the way that she was walking? Of course." Contessa.  
"I'd hate to see what Frankie would do to her if she had admitted to it. I mean you saw the way she reacted when she'd suspected it." I look in their direction, a full moon is shining through the bars, Maggot and Contessa are close to each other, whispering to each other. I look for Frankie, I can't see her so I assume that she's on her bed bellow me. I lay on my back listening to the convocation between Maggot and Contessa.  
"Maybe Frank just needs to calm down; I mean we had wound her up before Saphraye got back. But you're right, it'll be awkward for a while."  
"Do you think we should warn Saphraye not to bring it up, or to give Frankie some space?"  
"Yes. But for now let her sleep. She's had a really rough 48 hours. Did you hear, her Auction went for about twenty hours! It was crazy."  
"Yeah, I heard. Increasable. Maybe we should sleep, there's another show tomorrow, and well… all of us will be auctioned off." Maggot sighs "Let's just hope that things go well for Saphraye, and let's hope that John comes back and bids on Frankie." I hear the two move to their beds. I roll over and close my eyes.

_[Dream]  
I dream of John and I, or bodies together. Though this time it's more intense, a ring is on my finger and we are kissing each other anywhere and everywhere while we are thrusting. I'm watching this unfold as if it was a movie. Scratch marks are on John's back. We're rolling all over the bed and at points are hanging off the bed. All of a sudden when the screaming starts Frankie bursts in with a spiked club. "You bitch!" she screams and hits me over the head with it._

I awake and climb down the ladder. Frankie is at the window, I sit next to her. "Did it happen?" she asks, her voice shaking.

"The Delphinium grandiflorum, a bright royal blue flower. The one Julia put in your hair...I requested it be put in your hair. Royal blue is for Loyalty and true love. It's also the same flower John had in a glass he used as a vase in his bedroom. I wanted it put there for John, and perhaps that you would see it as a sign that I as your friend promise to protect you" I smile.

"I'm sorry but…"

"You did it. Didn't you?" she asks cutting me off short

I nod.

"It was mainly because of me I…" I begin a detailed description of the events leading up to John and me having sex and the convocation that we had after it.

"You see, he has eyes for you." I explain and I see anger flicker in her eyes.

[Frankie]

"Fuck you" I spit venomously and Saphraye looks at me scared and offended. I turn away back to the window pain.

"But if he didn't I would have been in more danger" she tries and I don't listen to her. To be honest listening to her go into the details of the sordid act the two of them par took in was tearing me apart it made me sick to my stomach. He could make love to her a girl he'd never met but has been bidding on me for months and yet could not bring himself to do it. What was wrong with him? What was wrong with me for trusting him and sending him there to save her.

"Try meeting the man of your dreams... " I begin "To find he won't hurt you, but you come back to hell finding that there are people here who will" I say coldly looking out the window then turning back to Saphraye

"Try having them find out you're a virgin, sticking instruments, fingers and whatever else up there to check" I say looking her dead in the eye and pointing up sharply when appropriate.

"They put you through pain, they make you bleed and yet you stay silent through it all, they are bemused by such a reaction so they make a special..." I stop for a moment, I can't bring myself to say it but I know I must go on "A special arrangement for you"

She can't speak I've rendered her speechless.

"Try being fucked by Hellio...and others in a room where you can't tell how long you've been there or what day it is" and I hear Saphraye gasp a little.

"I came back to this very cell" I explain pointing to the floor

"From that room" I say my eyes not even blinking as I point out of the cell

"With four broken rips, I was bloody and bruised, I couldn't walk without it hurting, I had things done to me that you can't even imagine"

Saphraye's eyes well with tears. And I am still cold

"I kept you from that, by asking the one I love so much to save you" I say softly my voice quivering as my eyes well.

"So don't you dare tell me about the dangers in these asylum walls cause I've experienced far more than you" I say finally turning away and looking out at the tree.

{Saphraye}

She begins yelling and screaming at me, as if it was my fault that it happened.  
"Breakfast time!" calls a handler and I am almost relived Saved by the handler I think to myself, and for once it's true. Frankie jumps up and walks quickly ahead. Emilie, Contessa, Maggot walk with me and Aprella and Veronica try to keep up with Frankie, they can't.

We get our slop and walk to our table. Frankie waits for everyone to sit down until she sits at the other end of the table alone.

"Are you ok?" Emilie asks I nod  
"Did anything bad happen?" I shake my head. I can't help but keep glancing at Frankie. I know that she's pissed at me; someone slams their tray on the table. I jolt. I can see Frankie and Emilie having a stare off. Emilie calls Frankie a child, I can see flames in Frankie's eyes and in Emilie's. I stand up and run out of the dining hall, a chaser follows me, though it's completely useless. I run back to the cell and climb up the ladder for the bed and begin to cry. The handler runs into the cell panting.

[Frankie]

"Don't you have a child to tend to?" I ask Emilie behind another mouthful

"Yes, she's sitting in front of me" she says crossing her arms and watching me as I swallow hard and shovel in more

"I am not a child! I'm a victim" I say still shovelling food into my mouth. I wasn't even eating cause I wanted to I was eating cause I wanted all this pain to just go away.

"Of your own design Francine" she glares at me and I stop eating.

"So?"

"So? You knew the repercussions when you went through with this plan"

"I didn't think that Saphraye would have had sex with the man I love" I said in a sharp whisper.

"Well when you think about it he had no choice, Saphraye would have been in a similar situation to what we had to go through" she explains gesturing between us and the girls

"He would have been banned from the auctions and would never see you again" she whispers. "There's another auction today, we will all be auctioned off hopefully John will be present and will bid on you"

"And if he isn't?"

"He's missed bidding before Frank" she says giving me a very factual look. I sigh remembering the days John had missed my auctions and I had to share hours of my life with other older men I detested.

"And what if he is and bids on Saphraye again?"

"I don't know Frank, I doubt a man like John could ever not have eyes for you, you heard what Saphraye said about him"

"They still broke my trust"

"You knew it was on the cards Frank" Emilie tries to reason and no matter how hard I try to keep up this offence I know she is right. John and Saphraye supposedly had no choice. But he didn't have to do all that he had. I begin to wonder if I had ever crossed his mind in that moment. If he really did love me, because I knew I loved him.

I see Saphraye run off

"What do you think that was about?" I hear Veronica chime in

"Who fucking cares, Veronica" I say still eating. We hear screaming it must be Saphraye.

"Serves her right for running away from a handler" I sigh

"Frank!" Emilie glares at me

"What it's true" I shrug

"We have to go get her. The girls are already standing and waiting for me. I roll my eyes and I see Contessa and Aprella sprint off. Followed by Maggot. Emilie grizzled at me and then runs off after the others and Veronica goes to but waits for me, I roll my eyes again and give an exasperated sigh

"Fine!" I say getting up and jogging with Veronica

"You know you're more of a bitch than I am when your put into situations you don't like?" asks Veronica as we run.

"Yeah I guess" I sigh

{Saphraye}  
"You are one fast bitch."  
"Fuck off!" I scream. "I'm in my cell lock me in and go away!" I burry my face in the pillow; the handler is hesitating, there is no noise from the cell door, however I can hear footsteps coming closer and closer to me. The handler grabs my arm and pulls me off the bed and onto the floor, almost hitting my head of the floor. He gets on top of me and my eyes are wide; he holds my wrists with one hand, and undoes his pants with the other I start to scream. He takes his hand away from my wrists for a minute to slap me hard across the face.  
"Shut your fucking mouth whore!" his pants are down around his ankles now, and he doesn't even remove my shift. He forcefully goes inside me and thrusts violently; there is no pleasure in this, only pain. I start to scream again and he punches my cheek. I begin to taste blood. When he comes out of me I'm crying. I take this as a lesson to never run off again. He handler walks out of the cell slamming it shut behind him and locking it. I crawl into the corner and curl up. How someone could be so cruel I had no idea.

I hear the girls coming back from breakfast, and I am relived. The cells are opened, but I don't look up, I remained curled up on the floor in the corner facing the wall crying. "Saphraye!" the girls call and against all odds I can hear them all run over to me, but not Frankie. The girls are ripped off me and taken to their cells. The cells are locked and the handlers walk away. The ground is cold and hard, but I don't care, and I wonder why it was painful with the handler but so pleasurable with John. Somehow I manage to fall asleep.

I am pulled off the ground and slapped away "Show time missy!" it's the handler who fucked me earlier. I open my eyes a little bit but quickly shut them again. "Get walking you slut!" and he throws me on the floor again. I quickly scramble up and begin to walk with the other girls. We are taken to the stage. A maid sits me down; the headliner walks up and says  
"Don't do anything to her, she looks perfect." A sinister grin. He walks onto the stage and welcomes the men. We are pushed onto the stage and we are paraded like animals and lined up. The headliner walks up to me and says "How much for this crazy beauty?" The bidding begins and I look for John, I spot Frankie, she's obviously doing the same. I spot him. He doesn't bid on me though. A man who looks around his late twenties calls out  
"£6,000!" no one else seems to be bidding on me  
"£6,000 going once…going twice…SOLD!" my eyes widen  
"This'll serve you right." Frankie whispers in my ear. The man walks over to me and pucks me up like John had done the day before and carries me to a different room.

Ten minutes pass and not a word nor physical contact had been made between us. "My name is Mordokai." He finally says  
"I-I'm Saphraye." I say.  
"Look, you're beautiful and we're supposed to screw, but I don't know if you want to, I mean I saw you and thought that this girl more than anything needs someone to talk to. And when no one bided on you, I thought to bid a fair amount and still no one bided on you." We're both sitting on the bed and I can't help but think about how John and I began.  
"I've been broken that's why." I say  
"How so?"  
"Look at me, bruised. No one wants someone who has a flaw."  
"So." He moves over to me and moves the hair out of my face. "That only means that there's a story to tell." He kisses me lightly on the lips. "Tell me truthfully you will let me take you, make love to you I mean." I think for a moment and nod. We hug and like with John he carefully unties my shift as if I were a present. I lay down while he undresses, however he's a lot quicker in getting undressed than John was. When he gets on top of me, he begins to enter me and thrusts, it's somehow less painful than earlier or with John. When he begins to thrust, I begin to, my arms are slightly bent and my hands are next to my ears. He begins to kiss my neck and face, and I kiss him back, I allow his hands to move where they pleased. His naked body pressed against mine was pleasurable. We begin to roll all over the bed and we fall off, yet we keep going. I begin the screaming and moaning again. Hough he doesn't ask to stop, he seems to know that it's pleasurable. Our hands are moving all over each other, he's still inside me and I start the full screaming again. I don't want this to end. He comes out of me and we are panting. "Are you alright?" he asks. I nod and we get back on the bed. "Do you want to go again?"  
"Yes. Please." I say. He gets on top of me again and we start again. Still pleasurable, we are together and enjoy it.

After I don't know how long we are off the bed again and we're not caring, I know that there's scratch marks all over my back because I can feel them, and I know that I've been scratching him too. The two of us are kissing everywhere we can without leaving each other. We are both moaning and screaming each other's names and other things. When he comes out of me the second time I say "Don't leave me." Panting. He smiles and comes right back in. We manage to move around the room, up against the walls and everything while he was inside me the third time. After he comes out of me we go to the bed and lay under the covers, it is dark and we are tired.  
When we wake up he says "Good morning beautiful." I smile  
"Morning."  
"Would you like to go again before our time is up?" I nod at him "There is something different that I'd like to do before we do that though." He smiles  
"What?" I ask. He goes undo the sheets and I can feel him kissing my stomach and moving down until he's between my legs, kissing and tonguing it. When the moaning starts he starts coming up and then he's inside me again.  
"Pleasurable?" he asks, kissing my neck.  
"Oh yes!" I manage to say. The thrusting and kissing begins. And when we both start screaming he comes out of me. "Do you have to leave?" I ask. He looks at me.  
"I'll be back tomorrow. You'll be mine." He says smiling. He walks over to his stuff and gets dressed. Once he's dressed he collects my shift and does it up again. "You're very beautiful you know Saphraye." He kisses my forehead, then my lips. We begin kissing passionately and there's a knock at the door.  
"Decent?"  
"C-come in." I say. Hellio and a handler walk in.  
"I hope you had a good night you too." Mordokai nods. "Good to hear, but I'm afraid that times up." Mordokai pouts. The handler walks over to me grabs my arm and drags me to the cell. When I get into the cell I walk over to the window. Mordokai is leaving and looks up at the cell window and blows a kiss to me. I watch him walk away until he's completely out of my sight. There's a clinking of keys behind me, and the screech of the cell door.  
"Hellio wants to see you missy." One of the handlers walks over to me and grabs my arm and drags me to Hellio's office. The handler knocks on the door.  
"Come in." Hellio says slyly. I'm horrified, what does he have in store for me this time? The handler opens the door, and pushes me in, closing the door behind him. This was strange because usually a handler would come in with us. There's a group of men with Hellio, they all have sinister grins on their faces. I stand with my back to the door, I hear a small click, I knew what it meant; I was locked in, trapped. "This is Saphraye gentlemen." Hellio gestures to me as he walks over. "She's our latest little inmate." One of the gentlemen walk over to me and grabs my chin, looking at my face with surgical precision.  
"Other than the bruise she is such a beauty." He says.  
"You've all paid so well gentlemen; I thought I'd give you a little treat." Hellio says and I know where he's going with it. "You all shall have some…fun with little Saphraye, however, I shall begin and I have not yet had…the pleasure of her flesh." The men sound satisfied. Hellio throws me onto the ground and rips off my shift, and throws it into the corner where I cannot reach it. He picks up an instrument from his desk and takes off his pants. "Just a little…inspiration before we begin." He sticks this thing inside me and it begins to vibrate, it hurts, Hellio takes it out of me and enters me forcefully, thrusting hard and fast. I scream for him to stop. But he doesn't. When he does another man enters me, then another when he is finished then another, and another. It seems as if there's an endless queue of men lining up to fuck me.

Hellio enters me again, and this time he goes for a long time, forcing me to scream my head off in pain to make him stop. He says "You will never get what you want." He goes harder and harder until I feel as if I'm going to be ripped in half. When he leave me I am so weak I cannot move. "Does anyone want another go?" he asks. The men rush over to me and the first one obviously gets the fun. I pass out while he is inside me.

I awake naked on the floor of Hellio's office; my body is aching so badly I look at myself just to make sure I'm still in one piece. When I sit up I look down in between my legs and I can see blood, they were going that hard that they made me bleed. I manage to crawl over to the corner and pick up my shift. "Don't you dare put that back on." I look behind me shivering. Hellio is naked, fully; no shirt, no shoes, no pants. He walks over to me "You're coming with me." He grabs my arms and drags me into a back room. I'm too sore and weak to fight. The throws me onto a large bed, much larger than the ones in the service room. There is a large array of those instruments on the table next to the bed. "You're going to have two things inside you now." He says picking up one of the things and sticking it inside me then he does something I think was impossible, he manages to enter me. I start to cry. The thing is vibrating and Hellio is thrusting at an incredible pace. I start to cry. The thing is vibrating and Hellio is thrusting at an incredible pace  
"Stop!" I scream "Stop! Please ! Stop!" he thrusts harder and I'm screaming in pain, he's felling my breaks and body roughly like I'm not precious and not fragile. When he comes out of me, he keeps the thing inside me and says  
"You won't be up for auction tonight, tomorrow you will."  
"Get this thing out of me! Please!" he walks over to me and sticks his hand right inside me, I scream and he keeps his hand there for a while, then pulls it out. He throws my shift at me and I put it on me quickly.  
"You are staying with me tonight, and then tomorrow you will be up for auction." He laughs sinisterly getting dressed and walking out of the room. I hug my knees to my chest despite the pain that it causes me and I cry into them.


End file.
